I’m at the gym. What the heck do I do now?

You’ve posted one too many fitspirational pictures on your Pinterest board. You’ve downloaded every bass-pumping EDM song you can find onto your playlist. You’ve got your sneaks on and are walking into the gym full of determination to hit the weight room and unveil that muscle you’ve been hiding this winter. But……. what the heck do you do with all this stuff?

For strength training beginners, it is crucial to hit your major muscle groups as often as you can. You may have heard of upper body/lower body splits or body part splits, but total body workouts are the best bet for beginners. You can worry about switching to one of those later. For now, all you need to know is what your major muscle groups are so that you can strengthen them with all your workouts.

I will give you the inside look on how I teach my clients about the body and strength training, so that you will be able to put together a no-fail total body workout and feel like you have a plan for what do to do in the gym.

1. There are five major muscle groups that we want to hit.

Glutes / hamstrings

Glutes/ quads

Back

Shoulders/ chest

Abs

2. We want to hit the hardest exercises first.

Do the hard/ most important things first so your form will be at it’s best and you will get the most out of that exercise. For a total body workout, this means hitting your legs first.

3. There is a difference between knee-dominant and hip-dominant.

Knee Dominant

Hip Dominant

Knee-dominant exercises will predominately work your glutes & quads. Hip-dominant exercises will predominately work your glutes & hamstrings. Knee-dominant exercises include squats, lunges and step ups. Hip-dominant exercises include deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts and glute bridges. Both are incredibly important and hip-dominant (the best kept secret to an awesome butt) exercises are often forgotten.